


Every bad has. . .you know. . .has a good.

by Olithegreat



Category: Game Grumps
Genre: Arin cross dresses, Gayyyyyyy, I obviously love my cute bois, M/M, No Smut, have a nice day you sexy people, high school au I guess, i still don't know how to tag
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-30
Updated: 2018-12-31
Packaged: 2019-09-30 07:28:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 4,503
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17219564
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Olithegreat/pseuds/Olithegreat
Summary: Life is tough in high school, but a friend group of four strange kids can get through it.Dan looks strange, but since he's friends with a senior, no one messes with him.Arin's dating Dan, crossdresses, and is a high school dropout, but since he's associated with the senior, he's fine.Barry hit puberty earlier than usual, but he has Ross to protect him, but that may not always be a good thing.Ross is average height, though a little skinny, so he would probably get by fine if he didn't always stupidly sass his way into getting his ass beat.





	1. The gray crayon

10 years ago, Barry and Ross were both 5, and their respective parents had been friends for a while, so while weekly lunch meetings, they simply hired one babysitter for the two kids to save cash. Barry and Ross contrasted each other, which, for little kids, is usually a bad thing. Ross was an ill-tempered kid, and didn't speak a lot to people he didn't know. He rarely talked to other kids and often threw tantrums. If he did become friends with someone else, he would get really clingy, which isn't too abnormal for a kid, but with Ross, he could be left alone for a second without breaking into tears. Barry, on the other hand, was almost always happy, and loved to talk. He made lots of friends, and he usually wasn't too clingy, besides that normal kid clingy-ness, though he was very handsy. Ross was sitting on the couch next to his mother and the babysitter, Debbie, when Barry was dropped off at his house. The moment Ross saw Barry, he whined and dug his head into his mom's shirt. Muffled, Ross complained to his mom.  
"You didn't tell me." his mom took a second before realising he was talking about Barry.  
"Look, Ross, I'm sorry, but we needed to this." his mom replied. Ross stayed silent. His and Barry's parents left, so they were left alone with the Debbie. Ross simply clung to her. He relied on her since he had been watched by her for a long time.  
"Ross, I have to go make lunch. Be, good okay?" the only response from Ross was whine and a sniffle.  
"Barry, make sure he's good, okay?"  
"Okay!" was Barry's enthusiastic response. When Debbie went to the kitchen, Barry turned to Ross and stuck out his hand.  
"Hi! I'm Barry!" Ross looked at Barry's outstretched hand, then walked off to get his crayons. Barry was a little hurt, but he never let anything get him down, so he just grabbed his tablet and watched videos. Ross went into the dining room and set a piece of paper down on the smooth linoleum floor. He grabbed his crayons and began coloring. There was a lot of black in this picture, but he lost his black crayon a while ago. He used gray, but pressed down really hard. Suddenly, the crayon broke. It would have been fine if it split in the middle, but it broke at the tip, so holding the tip would be a pain, and it was annoying to use the back. This was too much for Ross. He screamed, crying at the same time. Debbie sighed, looking away from her cooking.  
"God dammit, Ross." she muttered under her breath as she made her way into the dining room. But barry had gotten there before her, and when he saw what Ross was screaming about, he grabbed his own crayons out of his backpack and put them next to Ross. He stopped crying immediately. Ross looked at Barry and smiled. Barry hugged Ross, and he just sat there, enjoying it. Debbie was surprised that Ross had even looked at Barry, let alone let Barry hug him. Suddenly, a loud, high, noise resonated throughout the house. Oh no. The smoke alarm. Ross and Barry both screamed while Debbie rushed to get everything situated. When the smoke alarm was turned off, Debbie realised that she left the stove on, and that was the cause of the smoke. She went back to comfort the two kids, and found that they had both embraced the other tightly, shaking.  
"I'm sorry, you're okay now, okay?" Debbie said softly. The boys let go of each other. "We're gonna have lunch a little bit late today." the boys nodded. Debbie went back to the kitchen, satisfied. Barry looked at a Ross' drawing.  
"What are you drawing?" Barry asked. Ross' face lit up  
"Dinosaurs with lasers in space!" He exclaimed. Barry watched Ross draw, but midway, Ross paused. He realized that he didn't pay attention to what the other boy's name was.  
"What's your name?"  
"Barry." Ross paused, contemplating the name, then exclaimed;  
"Bear!" In all the years after that, Ross never referred to Barry as Barry, rather as Bear or B.

 

That evening, when Ross was drawing, his mom came up to him.  
"I heard you made a new friend." she said. Ross nodded happily.  
"Bear!" Ross practically yelled, thrusting Barry's crayon box at his mom to show it off. It had a lot more crayons than his old one did, and it even had sharpener so he could make new tips for the crayons if they broke.  
"What's that on the back of your drawing?" his mom asked. Ross smiled even wider. He flipped over the drawing he made that day. On the back of it, scribbled in Barry's handwriting was 'Bear.' Ross' mom had to keep herself from crying.

Ross finally had a friend.


	2. The Outburst

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We move forward in Ross and Barry's life.

Barry and Ross were 11 now, in the last month of 5th grade, and Barry's and Ross' respective parents trusted them to be able to babysit themselves, so Barry and Ross often were on sleepovers alone. They both slept on Ross' bed (don't get the wrong idea please), but Barry was usually was the first one to sleep, because Ross was working on animations late into the night. (He was extremely good at animating, even though he hadn't even got to his teens yet.) One night, Ross got extremely frustrated on something he was working on, and accidentally pressed the wrong button, and everything was erased. Tears streamed down his cheeks as anger welled up inside of him.  
"GOD DAMN IT"  
Barry sat up immediately, startled awake by a yell. He looked over to the bright screens in the corner of a the room, and saw Ross' silhouette. He was standing, but he then plopped back into his chair. He got up and walked cautiously toward Ross. He'd dealt with his outbursts before, he knew what to do.  
"Ross, what's wrong?" Barry asked cautiously  
"Well I was animating and it wasn't going well then I got mad and then I accidentally erased everything then I yelled now you're awake and my back hurts and so does my shoulders and neck and everything hurts and I can't sleep and it's cold in here and-" Ross stopped rambling when Barry began to rub his shoulders. Its felt nice, after leaning over a tablet for hours on end. Ross sank deeper into his chair.  
"C'mon, go to sleep." Barry softly insisted. Ross got up, and, without changing, laid down on the bed. He fell asleep within minutes Barry laid down and put the blanket over the both of them. Both of them slept amazingly that night.

Over their childhood, Ross was extremely cocky about his ability to fight. Once, Ross poked a snake with a stick and it bit him. Ross was lucky it wasn't lethal. Another time, Ross grabbed a spider, and he got bit again. He was alright though, it wasn't lethal either. And the day after Ross' "animation outburst," Barry was being bullied by some short kid, and Ross got defensive.  
"Hey didn't the kindergarten dismiss an hour ago?" Ross snarked. Barry shook his head at Ross, hoping he would stop. The short kid walked up to Ross.  
"Say that again and I'll punch you." The kid said. Ross laughed.  
"You seem awfully angry. Did your parents trip over you this morning?" The kid snapped. The kid, who was very strong and athletic, punched Ross, who was frail and didn't know how to defend himself, in the stomach. Ross fell down and coughed a second before looking up.  
"You know what? I forgive you. Everyone makes mistakes, even your parents." At this the kid lost all self control and went all out on Ross. The adults pulled the kid away, then called Barry and Ross to the office.

They waited outside the principal's office, sitting in waiting room chairs. Ross was laughing hysterically, despite the fact that he winced with every movement because it hurt his stomach, that he was bruised everywhere, that he stumbled when he was walking. Barry felt himself beginning to tear up.  
"Ross, stop." he spoke softly, and Ross silenced himself abruptly, hearing how quiett he was, and how shaky his voice was. Barry was looking at his feet, hoping Ross wouldn't notice him crying, but Ross heard Barry sobbing. He carefully put two fingers under Barry's chin and guided his head upwards face him. He used the back of his other hand to brush Barry's tears off of his face.  
"C'mon Bear, don't cry. I did that so you wouldn't get hurt, and then I ended up hurting you, so I just got beat up for no reason." Barry jerked away from Ross and sat upright.  
"You shouldn't have gotten beat up in the first place!" Barry exclaimed. Ross remained strangely calm, just staring into Barry's eyes for that one moment that Barry's head was resting on his fingers was enough to put him in a blissful state.  
"I know, Bear, I just didn't like seeing you hurt, and I was stupid."  
"N-no you weren't. I just. . .you got hurt and I don't like that and then you were laughing and I got worried and. . .and. . ." before he could finish, Ross shushed him and nodded. Barry laid his head on Ross' shoulder.  
"Just know I'm still pissed." Barry remarked with a smile  
"Now you're back to normal." Ross said, grinning. He realised that the principal, Mrs. Scott, was looking at them with a smile, holding back tears. She turned to the short kid who was still sitting inside, and told him he could leave. He stormed out, not before shooting Ross an icy glare. Ross didn't care, he was still in that blissful state, which was charged by Barry laying on his shoulder.  
"Ross, Barry, you two can come in now." Mrs. Scott said kindly. Barry and Ross walked in, Barry helping Ross walked because that short kid practically beat him to a pulp. While walking in, Ross smiled at Mrs. Scott, and she nodded knowingly in response. The three sat down at the principal's desk.  
"Barry," she began, her kind tone calming both of them down. "I know you weren't directly involved in the incident, but could you tell me what you saw?" Barry nodded and began.  
"I was walking towards the school exit when this kid began to tease me about whatever, and then Ross got angry at him because he was me, and Ross started teasing him about how short he was, then the kid. . .he. . ." Barry began to stutter. He looked over to Ross. Ross quickly glanced down in between the chairs, where he had his arm outstretched. Barry took it and continued.  
"The kid punched Ross in the stomach and then Ross spat out one more insult and the kid went all out on Ross." Mrs. Scott turned to Ross.  
"You're partly at fault for this, Ross, you really hurt that kid." at hearing that, Ross almost grinned widely. That's all Ross wanted. To hurt the kid. Mrs. Scott noticed the smile tugging at Ross' lips. She simply sighed and said,  
"Ross, look I know you're a good person, you just need to broaden the range of people you're a good person to."  
"So you're saying I should get more friends." Ross said leaning forward and smirking slightly. When he realised he was talking to the principal leaned back and that smirk subsided. Mrs. Scott looked at him for a second then took a deep breath.  
"Barry, you can go for now, I need to talk to Ross a little longer." when Barry reluctantly left, Ross sighed, getting ready for what usually came next.  
"Ross, you like you're anticipating something. What is it."  
"You're gonna ask me why I always tease or insult people if they insult me or Barry even a little bit, and I'm gonna tell you that I can't help it, and you're gonna interrupt me before I can explain, saying that I can, then you'll send me off and you'll hate me."  
"Then how about you explain? I won't interrupt."  
"Well, basically, I like hurting people, even my one friend, because it's like. . .like. . ."  
"You take pleasure in their pain."  
"Exactly, Barry not so much, I only tease him every now and then by, like, poking snakes with sticks and such."  
"Ross, I want you to go home and look up the word 'sadist.' Oh, and one more thing."  
"Yeah?"  
"When you were talking to Barry before you came in," Ross suddenly blushed deeply. Mrs. Scott continued. "I just wanted to say that you two remind me of me and my wife." Ross blushed even deeper.  
"Well. . .I. . .I wouldn't say we were. . .I mean. . .I like Barry but. . .he doesn't." Ross managed to finish his chopped up sentence. Mrs. Scott smiled.  
"I said that same thing about my wife when I was younger. Anyway, you don't wanna leave Barry waiting, do you?" Ross rushed up of the office, and he realised something. He had never realised before, he didn't know how, he loved Barry. Maybe Barry didn't like him back, maybe he did. It didn't matter. It all made sense to Ross. He thought back to the previous night, Barry touching his shoulders felt good, it was a nice massage, but he had also felt something else. All those empty spaces were filled, and nothing else mattered.  
"Are you okay, Ross? You seem flustered and happy." Barry asked, clearly noticing his change in mood.  
"Yeah, I'm feeling great."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's literally 10:19, and I am sleep deprived but I love this already so I'm gonna not sleep.


	3. The Sadist

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ross comes back to school the next day.

After getting scolded by his parents for getting into a fight, Ross looked up the word 'sadist.' Someone who gets pleasure from others' pain. It fit him well.

Ross came back to school the next day and told Barry about his revelation.  
"Why is that a good thing?" Barry asked.  
"I don't know, it just makes sense." Barry shrugged and they continued talking, until;  
"Ross O'Donovan, come to the main office." Ross sighed.  
"See ya later, Bear." Ross walked to the main office, and Mrs. Scott welcomed him in.  
"So, have you finally decided to chew me out?" Ross snarked, half worried that she would.  
"No, actually, I wanted to ask you if you looked up the definition of sadist." Ross nodded. Mrs. Scott looked worried. She continued, "It fits you perfectly, but, that's what I'm worried about. If you keep it up, you could get seriously hurt. Or. . ."  
"Killed?" Ross interrupted.  
"I hope not. Just. . .be careful, Ross."

Ross wasn't careful. By the end of the year, Ross had bruises all over his arms and legs, and he had been to the nurse's room so many times that they were actually friends. Barry was extremely worried about Ross, and telling by how often he got called to the main office, so was Mrs. Scott. On the last day of school, Ross was called to the office once again. Mrs. Scott seemed to get more and more worried about him every time he came. When he walked in, Mrs. Scott handed him a stack of sticky note sized papers. They were all his nurse passes. He looked up at Mrs. Scott, who had her face in her hands. She looked up.  
"13 papers. In one month. Ross, you're going to middle school next year, you're going to get seriously hurt. The thing is, most of the kids that hit you wouldn't hurt a fly, and yet you hurt them so badly that they snapped. If it wasn't such a bad thing, I would be impressed. You can find the thing they hate the most about themselves, and use it against them. I. . .Ross, please, I won't be at your middle school, and not everyone's gonna look out for you, can you keep yourself together."  
"Sure, but I have a question."  
"What is it?"  
"Why do you care so much? I mean, sure, it's your job, but most of the teachers have just given up at this point. Not only that, but everytime I come here, instead of yelling at me or telling me to stop, you try to understand me, and you seem more worried than annoyed. What's up with that?"  
"You're a good kid, Ross, you perform well in school, and you're nice to people if they gain your trust. You can't let a kid like that slip away. Now, go back to your class and have some fun. It's the last day of school." Ross nodded, satisfied with his answer. He went back to class and managed to not piss anyone off.

Middle school was somewhat uneventful, it consisted of learning and Ross getting the shit beaten out of him while Barry tried not to cry. However, they did meet two boys named Dan and Arin, who were doing whatever is the middle school equivalent of dating. They were teased a lot for it, Arin especially, because he crossdressed often. Barry instantly became friends with them, though it took Ross a while. They hung out throughout their middle school years, and went on to high school, though Arin dropped out his first year. Over time, Barry began to feel like Ross and him were more than friends, but he brushed it off. Ross wouldn't like him back, not in a million years. Though, Ross did sometimes joke-flirt with him. Barry assumed it was just a thing that friends did, though he always hoped that it was more. Ross liked to perceive it as more than just friendly banter, but Barry probably assumed that it was just that. He knew for certain he loved Barry, but he was almost sure that Barry only saw him as a friend, and he was fine with that, it would just be nicer if they felt mutual love for each other.


	4. The Jacket

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ross won't admit that he's in pain, and Barry won't let it happen any longer.

"Hey, Bear, sorry I slept in." Ross said, running out of his house and approaching Barry. "I stayed up late again."  
"It's fine, but if we're late I'm gonna. . .be mad at you." Barry attempted to threaten Ross  
"You can't find it in your heart to say you're kick my ass, it that it?" Ross teased. When Barry frowned, Ross began to apologise. "Sorry, sorry, I shouldn't have said that." Barry smiled. Then he noticed that Ross was wearing a jacket, in the 90+ degrees weather.  
"Ross, why are you wearing a jacket?" Barry asked. Ross didn't respond. "Ross?"  
"Personal reasons." Ross said, deadpan  
"Ross."  
"What do you want?"  
"Take the jacket off." Ross sped up his walking so that he was in front of Barry, but Barry grabbed him arm tightly, but not enough to hurt. It did hurt Ross though. Badly. Ross yelped and pulled his arm away quickly. "You got beat up again, didn't you?" Ross nodded and took the jacket off. The insides of his arms were a little bit bruise colored, and so were his wrists. Barry walked closer to get a better look. He then looked up at Ross. "What happened?" he asked. Ross shrugged.  
"He grabbed my wrists with one of his hands and slammed them down on the lunch table with brute force. It's not that bad, really." God, Barry hated it when Ross brushed things off like this. He knew it had to be worse than that.  
"Did it hurt?" he asked Ross. Ross raised an eyebrow.  
"Yeah, I mean-"  
"How much did it hurt?" Ross was taken aback by this question.  
"I mean, I. . .why did you ask?"  
"How much did it hurt?" Barry pressed on. Ross began to look uncomfortable, and Barry wanted to let it go, but if did that, then Ross would be in pain all day. He didn't want that to happen to Ross, he cared about him too much.  
"I. . .it. . .hurt. . .a lot. . ." Ross suddenly burst into tears, and Barry pulled Ross into a hug, carefully, as to not hurt Ross' arms.  
"It's okay." Ross backed away from Barry slowly.  
"We should probably get to school, shouldn't we?" Barry nodded. The two made their way to the school, Ross completely forgetting about the jacket he left on the ground.


	5. Chapter 5

School was mainly uneventful until lunch, when they met up with Dan. They were looking for him, when Dan snuck up behind them.  
"ROSS!" Ross jumped, startled. "Did you get into another fight?"  
"Fight isn't the word for it, but yes, I did get attacked." Ross said disdainfully. Dan sighed, and they sat down at a table.  
"So, how's Arin?" Barry asked. Dan smiled, he loved talking about his boyfriend.  
"He's doing great, I bought him an anime school girl outfit a while back, and he loves it. I did his makeup this morning, and now he's waiting for me to come home. He's probably trying to cook right now something right now. Emphasis on the word trying." Dan smiled. They talked for a while longer, then Ross and Barry made their way to the school roof. On their way there, they ran into a group of girls. This group had a history for teasing people with brown hair, because, for some reason, they hated brown hair. Unfortunately, Barry happened to have brown hair. The girls began to tease Barry, and Ross managed to keep his temper, though he did have something in mind. Then, the lead girl of the groups pushed Barry, and Barry, not expecting it, fell back. Ross' shit eating smirk appeared on his face and he strode right up to the girl that pushed Barry. He kept his bruised arms behind his back, to hide the fact that he was a weakling. He spoke,  
"So, you're the leader of this little. . .brown hair hating group?" Ross asked, his smirk slowly turning into a huge smile.  
"Yeah. So what?" The girl was clearly annoyed. Good.  
"Well, the thing is, I find that awfully ironic, because, I'm looking at your roots right now, and, though it's hard to see, there's a little bit of brown there. Though, I mean, you would never lie to your lovely friends here, isn't that right, girls?" the girls looked at the non-natural blond and realised that Ross was right. They scoffed and yelled and were just generally pissed off. When her friends left, she turned back to Ross, fuming. Ross giggled.  
"Looks like I have more friends than you." Ross was having a good time, but he made the mistake of exposing his bruised arms to the now friendless girl. Filled with rage, the girl grabbed Ross' arms and began to dig her nails into the bruises, causing him to bite his lip to avoid screaming in agony. Barry, who froze, sitting on the floor during this whole sequence, jumped up and tried to grab Ross, but right before he did the girl threw Ross onto the wall and stormed off. The crowd that had gathered around the area gasped. Suddenly, the class bell rang, and everyone left, shooting either icy or sympathetic looks at Ross, who had sank down to the floor, his back against the locker. Barry rushed over to him. He noticed that Ross' breathing was slower. He had fallen asleep. Barry picked Ross up and carried him to the nurse's office. He left him there and went back to class. At the end of the day, he came back to the nurse's office to find Ross with bandages around both his arms, from his wrists to his elbows. Suddenly, Barry filled with rage. He grabbed Ross by the upper arm and stormed out. When they were a distance from the school Barry turned around to face Ross.  
"What the hell? You could've gotten yourself hurt even more than that! What did I tell you!" Barry yelled. Ross looked at Barry with a blank face.  
"I can't help it." Ross began in a monotone voice, but as he kept talking, he got more worked up. "Plus, you're the one who's getting defended, I was trying to help you, you have no right to get mad at ME! This is not my fucking fault!" Ross stormed off, picking up the jacket he left on the sidewalk this morning and putting it on. Barry didn't know how to feel, he just stood there before sighing. He would talk to Ross when he got home.


	6. The Agreement

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Barry and Ross reach an agreement, and then Barry descends into madness.

Barry knocked at the door to Ross' house. Ross' dad appeared at the doorway.  
"Hey, can I see Ross?" Barry asked  
"Sure, but he's locked himself in his room. I assume you know why?" Ross' dad looked slightly worried, but not as much as Barry felt.  
"Yeah." Ross' dad stepped back and Barry made his way upstairs. He knocked on Ross' door. "Ross? You in there?" No response. "Ross, look I know you're mad at me, but if you let me in, we can sort this out." there was a sigh from the other side of the door.  
"The door isn't locked. Come in." Barry walked in the room. Ross was sitting on his bed. When he saw Barry, he softly patted the bed next to him. Barry sat down next to Ross. "Look, B, I. . .I'm sorry that I got mad but. . .you can't get mad at me, because I really tried not to get my ass kicked, but, I mean, when she pushed you, I. . .I had to see her lose all her friends as payback, it's only reasonable." Barry sighed.  
"I can't understand you Ross, I really can't. . .but you know how much I hate seeing you in pain. . .could you. . .I don't know. . .try harder?" Ross put his hand on top of Barry's.  
"I'll try." Barry got up to leave, getting the conversation he wanted, but Ross grabbed his arm. "Well, now that you're here, I made some new Mario Maker levels I want you to play."  
"God damn it, Ross." Barry sat back down on the bed and began to play Mario Maker levels, slowly descending into madness as Ross laughed. Ross took off his jacket, showing his bandaged arms. He threw it to the back of the room and scowled at it. Hopefully his mom didn't walk in and start yelling at him. He rested his head on Barry's shoulder and closed his eyes, no completely asleep, but at peace, occasionally giggling when Barry died in the level.

It was nice.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the short chapter, I didn't really know how to make it longer.


	7. Not a real chapter but I'm considering ending this

Hey, I was considering ending this, but I wanted to get your opinion(s) on it first. I feel like it hasn't really captured the personalities of the characters well enough that it's still evident in my story, so it kind of feels like random characters with the Grump's names. Not only that, but I feel like there are tons of things that make no sense, and I'm not sure how to make it make sense. I do want to continue this, but at the same time I don't. It really depends on what the people reading this think, so I'd really love your feedback! Thanks!

**Author's Note:**

> I wanted to write another fanfiction because I couldn't keep this idea locked in a cage. Thanks for enduring my indirect fangirling! Love you *blows kiss*


End file.
